José Pascual Corbató Chillida (1862–1913), known also as José Domingo Corbató or Padre Corbató or Francisco María Cruz, was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. Between 1891 and 1912, he animated 7 local and short-lived Valencian periodicals. In the mid-1890s, he was briefly catapulted to celebrity status when he was trialed for asserting that the regent Maria Christina was leading the Spanish freemasonry. Politically, Corbató initially sided with Carlism and was its vehement propagandist. In the 20th century, he developed his own political doctrine: Traditionalism formulated in highly providentialist and millenarian terms. In historiography, his political trajectory is considered typical for some disintegration patterns within Carlism; Corbató himself is viewed as representative of a heterodox breed of españolismo.
Family and youth
Corbató's ancestors were probably farmers; at some point one of their representatives managed to access lower professional strata.Javier Esteve Martí, La política antiliberal en España bajo el signo del nacionalismo: el padre Corbató y Polo y Peyrolón [PhD thesis Universitat de València], Valencia 2017, p. 20 His father, José Corbató Cardá, was related to the Levantine town of Benlloc, where in the mid-19th century he worked as a teacher in local primary school.Esteve Martí 2017, p. 21 At unspecified time he married Vicenta Chillida Planell; none of the sources consulted provides any information either on her or her family, except that they were entitled to a petty rural rent.Esteve Martí 2017, pp. 20–21 The couple had 5 children, José born third in succession and the first male descendant. The family was very pious; already at the age of 4 José knew how to pray a rosary, some of his cousins became priests, and 3 of the Corbató Chillida siblings became religious themselves.Esteve Martí 2017, pp. 20–21. Corbató’s cousin José María Corbato was also member of the Dominican order; for a few years he taught natural sciences in Universidad de Manila, El Restaurador 09.03.10, available here; his sister became an abess of the Dominican convent in Alcañiz
Following the 1868 revolution Corbató Cardá fervently opposed the new order; he declared himself supporter of the legitimist claimant Carlos VII and refused to take oath to the constitution of 1869.María Bayarri Roselló, Las biografías de Girolamo Savonarola en España en el siglo XX, [in:] Donald Weinstein, Júlia Benavent i Benavent, J. Inés Rodríguez Gómez, La figura de Jerónimo Savonarola O. P. y su influencia en España y Europa, Firenze 2004, , p. 226 As a result, he was not only fired from his petty teaching job, but reportedly also jailed, detained in Valencia and threatened with execution; during his incarceration the family suffered great economic hardships. Upon Corbató Cardá's release in 1871 he was reinstated to the official job but posted some 60 km away to Zorita, in the Castellón Maestrazgo already bordering Aragón; the entire family settled in the town as well.
Upon outbreak of the Third Carlist War José 4 times escaped from home to enlist to legitimist troops, always rejected due to his age. In 1874 and posing as a 15-year-old he was eventually admitted, assigned to the garrison of Cantavieja. Shortly afterwards he was transferred to units commanded by Pascual Cucala and become POW during the battle of Miravet. For a few months he was shuttled between various prisons.the adolescent Corbató passed through the prisons of Tarragona, Vic, Mora d’Ebre, Falset, Montjuïc and another Barcelona prison, Manlleu, Esteve Martí 2017, p. 22 Thanks to exchange of prisoners the boy returned to Carlist ranks, initially commanded by Francisco Savalls and then again by Cucala. He served in various unitsfirst in the 6th company of Batallón de Vizcarro. Narrowly escaping encirclement by Liberal troops he survived the rout at Igualada and was later incorporated into Batallón de Miret. Most details on his military career are provided by Corbató himself and perhaps should be approached with caution, see e.g. Luz Católica 09.10.02 until Carlist troops in Catalonia surrendered in 1875.data based on his own account in La Monarquía Federal, 27,06.98, and booklet Carlismo, Españolismo. Profecías y Tradiciones. Memorias de un viaje de Propaganda. Referred after Esteve Martí 2017, p. 23 Exact role of the boy is not clear and it is not certain whether José took part in combat or performed some auxiliary roles.information on his wartime fate is based almost exclusively on his own account
In 1876 Corbató entered the Tortosa seminary. Following a brief spell in Dominican seminary in Belchite he then moved to the one in Corias, where he commenced novitiate and assumed the name of José Domingo.Esteve Martí 2017, p. 113 In 1880 he took simple vows and formally entered the Dominican Order,Esteve Martí 2017, pp. 113–114 assigned to the Nuestra Señora de las Caldas monastery.Esteve Martí 2017, p. 114 His conventual years were marked by conflicts with superiors, including altercation with the future Dominican provincial superior, Cayetano García Cienfuego. In 1887 Corbató was moved to San Pablo convent in Palencia,Esteve Martí 2017, p. 114-115 where he was charged with fraud and temporarily suspended.Bayarri Rosello 2004, p. 227 Shuttled between Valdeprado del Río,in the convent of Real Santuario de Montesclaros Palencia and Corias, he was also accused of indecent correspondence.his superiors claimed to have found indecent letters exchanged with his distant female relative; Corbató claimed the papers were falsified, Esteve Martí 2017, p. 115 In 1889 Vatican was asked for his interminable suspension.due to "permanent incapacity to adhere to conventual rules" Eventually Corbató retained his ministerial licenses and was allowed to live extraconventual life."licencia para permanecer fuera del claustro durante la enfermedad alegada", Esteve Martí 2017, p. 116 In 1890 he moved to Villareal to settle with his parents.his father has already retired and bought a house in Villareal. Corbató got his ministerial licenses confirmed and was saying mass in the local convent, Esteve Martí 2017, p. 116
Carlist propagandist
Having gained experience as periodista during his conventual years,in 1889–1890 El Siglo Futuro advertised his El Hijo de las Lágrimas, "ensayo poético sobre la conversión de san Agustín, compuesto en treinta y tres cantos y muy variadas combinaciones métricas"; it is not clear whether the poem has ever been published. In 1889 he commenced co-operation with a Dominican review Santísimo Rosario, Esteve Martí 2017, p. 114-115 in the early 1890s Corbató was the moving spirit – in some cases also formally a directorthis was the case of El Valenciano and El Criterio Valenciano; in case of La Voz de Maestrazgo the director was Nemesio Traver, José Navarro Cabanes, Apuntes bibliográficos de la prensa carlista, Valencia 1917, p. 184 – of a few periodicals: a Castellón weekly La Voz de Maestrazgo (1891–1893), a Valencian daily El Valenciano (1893–1894), its continuation1894 El Valenciano merged with its local Catholic rival El Criterio El Criterio Valenciano (1894–1895) and a Valencian weekly La Monarquía Federal (1895–1896). All operated at the verge of profitability, sustained mostly by donations; their circulation was at best nearing 3,000.Esteve Martí 2017, p. 140 All assumed extremely combative Carlist stand,some authors claim that virulent aggressive language was by no means excveption in the Levantine and Catalan press of the era, Solange Hibbs-Lisourges, La prensa católica catalana de 1868 a 1900 (II), [in:] Anales de Literatura Española 9 (1993), p. 100. Corbató published under his own name but he used a variety of pen-names, e.g. "Fulano de Tal" directed not only against Liberal and Conservative groupings, but also against other Levantine Catholic periodicals;his venom was directed especially against El Criterio of Valencia, Esteve Martí 2017, p. 137 Corbató claimed exclusive license for orthodox Catholicism.Corbató claimed that almost all other peridicals were not sufficiently Catholic, and denounced their reported fidelity to Roma as false, Esteve Martí 2017, pp. 140–142 None was officially authorized by local Carlist structures,La Voz was not an official provincial party mouthpiece; in 1893 this role was assumed by El Tradicionalista. Corbató tried to intervene with the nationwide party leader de Cerralbo, but to na avail. Following brief fratricidal competition La Voz ceased to publish, Esteve Martí 2017, p. 138 though some posed to represent Traditionalist organizations.La Monarquia Federal posed as organ of Juventud Tradicionalista While attracting second-rate contributors and in few cases Levantine Carlist pundits,La Monarquía Federal ensured sporadic co-operation of local Carlist personalities like Manuel Polo y Peyrolón and Joaquín Lloréns. Other contributors listed were José Navarro Cabanes, Vicente Calatayud y Bonmatí, Juan Luis Martín Mengod, Bernardo Pellejero Pérez, Santiago Jorcano and Francisco López Solano, Esteve Martí 2017, p. 143 all periodicals remained Corbató's one-man show and for long periods he used to populate their pages almost single-handedly.among a spate of pen-names Corbató signed his contributions often as "Víctor" or "P. de Castagélida" Moreover, in the mid-1890s Corbató turned into a genuine icon of young Valencian Carlists;Esteve Martí 2017, p. 227. In 1896 some popular Carlist propaganda items contained his portraits along these of key nationwide party leaders like Bartolomé Feliú or José de Liñan, El Baluarte 28.02.96, available here at home he ran an informal circulo, built his own followingEsteve Martí 2017, p. 229 and started to appear as an alternative leader, differing from old-style tycoons like Llorens, Polo and Manuel Simó Marín.Esteve Martí 2017, pp. 225–250
Relatively unknown beyond the Traditionalist Levantine circles, in 1894–95 Corbató was elevated to nationwide celebrity.Esteve Martí 2017, pp. 285–288, compare also a selection of press notes at Hemeroteca.bne service, available here It was because of his 1894 booklet León XIII, los carlistas y la monarquía liberal.Corbató published the book under the pen-name of Máximo Filibero, but his identity became almost immediately known Resembling an earlier pamphlet of Félix Sardà y Salvany, it was a most intransigent interpretation of papal teachings and contained onslaught on liberal and conservative politics; the booklet presented Carlism as the sole depositary of CatholicismCorbató’s exaltation of the Carlist king at times assumed millenarian and biblical tones, e.g. he claimed that "no hay salvación fuera de los principios católicos tan dignamente representados por el Señor D. Carlos VII de Borbón", referred after Esteve Martí 2017, p. 274 and lambasted various breeds of traitors.Corbató directed his pen not only against the Conservatives and the Carlist offhoots known as Pidalistas, but also against the Integrists of Ramón Nocedal, Esteve Martí 2017, p. 270 León triggered legal action as Corbató alleged that the regent, Maria Christina, was heading the Spanish freemasonry.in court Corbato was defended by a Carlist lawyer, Miguel Irigaray The cause turned into a scandal and was attentively followed by national press; even the prime minister Sagasta admitted to having read the pamphlet.Sagasta noted that charging a commoner with leading freemasonry by no means could have been considered an insult, but in case of a regent it certainly was, Esteve Martí 2017, p. 279 Corbató was expulsed from the Dominican order, the first such case ever recorded in Spain.Esteve Martí 2017, pp. 282–283, see also La Unión Católica 05.01.95, available here In 1896 he was sentenced to 11 years in prison and huge financial penalty.Esteve Martí 2017, p. 286